70 



TlorticuUurr. — Courses of six lectures encli on this sul).ieft were given. The 

 !;ist lecture of the series is us\ially on some such subject as " Soils iuul manures," 

 and given l>y one of the staff of Reading College. 



At one center a long course of 15 lectures was given, for which 25 pupils, 

 gardeners, and allotment holders entered, 8 of whom afterwards sat for the 

 Royal Horticultural Society's examination and received certificates. At one 

 other center oidy 2 lectures were given. 



Poultry hrepiiif/. — Ten courses of 4 lectures each, with an average attendance 

 of 29, were held in different parts of the county, and (> classes for practical 

 instruction in poultry trussing wer& also held. 



Bee keeping. — The technical education committee makes an annual grant of 

 £50 to the Berks Beekeepers' Association. The county has been twice covered 

 by the bee-van tours", and in 1900 the work was confined to :i general tour of 

 the county by experts, who gave i)ractical advice when it was needed ;ind 

 collected statistics as to the progress made in bee keeping. 



MdiiiKil procex-'^es of aiirU-iiltnve. — No iM'ovision has hitherto been made for 

 this class of instruction in the county, but the technical education committee 

 are prepared to give careful consideration to any ai»i)lication from a district for 

 instruction of this character. 



SclioUiiKliipn. — Four agi-icultural and horticultural senior scholarships of £.50 

 each, four agricultural exhibitions of £.35 each, and ten dairy scholarships of £10 

 each were offered in 1899-1900. The agricultural scholarships are tenable at 

 Reading College, the dairy scholarships are tenable at the British Dairy Insti- 

 tute, and those on horticultiu-e are tenable at the horticultural collcg(\ Swanely. 

 There were no candidates for the agrii-ultural scholarships and exhibitions. 

 One horticultural scholarship and seven dairy scholarshiiis were awarded. 



The agricultural exhibitions of £35 each were tenable at the Dauntsey Agri- 

 cultiu-al School, West I^avington, Imt it is in contem])lati(Mi to re]»lace these by 

 four agricultural exhibitions of £.">0 each, tenable at Reading College for a six 

 months' winter course. They will be open to candidates between the ages of 

 16 and 25, and are intended for those already familiar with the general routine 

 of farm work who aim at becoming practical farmers. 



Since 1893 10 senior scholarships in agriculture and 4 in horticulture have 

 been awarded. 



Experiments. — Manurial ;ind other experiments were carried out at eight 

 centers. 



County of Cheshire. 



There are in this county two principal centers maintained by the county 

 council, viz, the Agricultural and Horticultural ScIukiI at Holmes Chapel and 

 the Dairy Institute at Worleston. 



The Holmes Chapel School was opened in 18!)5. It provides a complete agri- 

 cultural course lasting three years, a diploma or certificate being granted to 

 successful students at the end of the course. The number of county council 

 scholarsbii)s, which cover board and fees, held at this school in 189!>-1900 was 

 29, and the total nunilier of pupils in April, 1900, amounted to 45. Various 

 experiments are carried out on the farm attached to the school, and nearly the 

 whole area of the farm, which amounts to 100 acres, is now under experiments. 

 The experimental work in 1899-19(t() included the cultivation of potatoes, grain 

 crops, roots, grasses, etc. ; the spraying of charlock, and experiments in tuber- 

 culosis with the cattle at the Holmes Chapel and Worleston schiiols. For 

 instruction in horticulture a garden of 7 acres, with greenhouses, is provided. 



The Dairy Institute at Worleston was taken over by the county council in 

 1891. To it is attached u grass farm of 170 acres, maintaining a milking herd 



